You Are What You Type, or Something Like That

Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Most of us have become so adept at using keyboards that we rarely stop to think about whether we type more words on the left side of the QWERTY keyboard or the right.

Well, researchers from the University College London and the New School for Social Research in New York have done the thinking for us and discovered that for some reason, keyboard users tend to have warmer feelings about words typed on the right side than the left, which induce more negative emotions.

Go figure.

The researchers found that their conclusion was the same whether volunteers typed words in English, Dutch and Spanish.

Such words or abbreviations like “LOL,” which are done on the right side, produced more positive emotions, even if they’re made up words like “plook” as opposed to words such as “red” or “saw” that are done on the keyboard’s left side.

One possible explanation is that words on the left are tougher to type since the left hand is responsible for 15 letters while the right only has to deal with 11 letters.

As a result, the researchers said, “People responsible for naming new products, brands and companies might do well to consider the potential advantages of consulting their keyboards and choosing the 'right' name.”

You also might want to think about changing your own name if most of the letters are on left side of the keyboard.